Las Vegas diary - part four

Tuesday started with the same delicate head that Monday started, but it was all good. We grabbed a little lunch, and then hung around Phil's apartment, watching the Little Britain DVD while Phil caught up with some work. It meant that by the end of things we were saying "yeah, I know" in the style of the wheelchair-bound Andy character until we were getting on each other's nerves.

Later that night we went to Fado's again in Green Valley, and came fourth in the pub quiz there. I confess, we did use Google a little to help with some of the more American questions, but we still did pretty well. The night finished with a couple of bottles of wine, and we were back in our customary states of mind.

Wednesday was another slow start; Phil had to work, which meant that I had the use of the Jag to cruise around for a while. I went to the outlet mall and had a look around for gifts, then watched Crash on DVD. Later, I dropped by Phil's office, picked him up, and we went down to a leaving do. One of his colleagues, Jeff, is leaving after 16 years in Vegas, and threw a party. We stopped around there for a few beers, then went to Gordon Biersch, which is a bar that makes its own beer.

We managed to find a couple of chairs that weren't attached to a table, but were just placed on their own. It was perfect - we became Waldorf and Stadler, the two characters from the Muppets, people-watching and talking rubbish. This fairly well represents the best moments on this trip; supping a few beers, and giggling like schoolgirls at everything and anything. From there we went to get some food, and then sloped home to another deep sleep.

Las Vegas diary - part three

Monday started a little gingerly, on account of our hangovers, but it didn't dent our spirits. The main part of the day was spent at Hoover Dam. It's less than an hour away from Vegas, but for some reason is way hotter. It was 110 degrees when we went there, which will get you in the end. It's an amazing structure, absolutely huge, and behind the dam is stored up a lot of water in the world's largest man-made reservoir.

We actually went on the organised tour, which was pretty interesting, and went inside the workings of the Dam, to see the generator farm. The Dam cost the US taxpayer nothing, because since its construction finished in 1935, the electricity generated has been sold on to recoup the costs.

The story of the construction is amazing; they had to redirect the Colorado river to build it - no small feat in itself; this was done by boring 4 tunnels into the solid rock, each 3/4 mile long, and encased in 3-feet thick solid concrete. In fact, there's enough concrete in the dam to cover 18.5 million acres of land a foot thick. Now that's a lot of concrete.

We left there to go over the Arizona border, just to get a couple of pictures, then drove back to Vegas. There we picked up Tori (pictured), and went looking for some childish fun. We settled on the arcade at the New York New York casino, and played all sorts of games. I managed to win a Bart Simpson toy for Tori, and we managed to get a few things out of those claw games. You know, the ones where you position a really weak claw over a collection of fairly undesirable toys, and when you press the button, the claw drops to pick up the toy, and then invariably drops the toy itself. It became a bit of a challenge to our manhood, so we wouldn't leave a machine until we'd won a toy. It meant Tori left with quite a few in the end.

After we'd dropped Tori off, we went to Road Runner, and stayed there, playing mini bowling and drinking till 3am.

Las Vegas diary - part two

Saturday night we went to a drive-in. Apart from the fact they don't have them in the UK, I'd never been to one. It was pretty good fun. Everybody pulls up in a big car park, and tunes their radio in to a particular frequency on the radio. There's people there with boom boxes pumping out the soundtrack, and it was so warm - we just sat around on sun loungers, and took it all in. We got two movies for 6 dollars. which puts them at about £1.60 each, about a fifth of the cost of a cinema back home. We saw Tim Burton's new movie Corpse Bride, and that was followed up by The Dukes of Hazzard, the reviews are to follow.

Sunday was my first day on the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard), where all the casinos are. We went into the new Wynn Casino (pictured), and it was very fancy. They've obviously spent a fortune on it, and judging by the restaurant prices, it's obviously pitched a bit upmarket. We played on the Megabucks machines, which are the ones that are all linked together, with a large jackpot. When we played it was at 10.5 million dollars, which would do nicely. We won about $15 each. Not a life-changer, but I got pretty excited, I can tell you.

We left there to go find somewhere to eat, and went to the Crown and Anchor, the 'British' pub, but it was rubbish, and the beer and the service was pretty poor. We ended up going down to Green Valley Ranch, to the casino there, and that was chock full of local gamblers. In Fado, the Irish pub, the time just passed, the Guinness was pretty good (for Vegas, anyway), and the giggling just got louder. We ended the night there, and it was the first time Phil looked drunk. Which was highly amusing.

My Vegas Diary - part 1

Got to Vegas yesterday, about 1:30 pm, and it was a pretty good flight. It's the first time I've flown to Vegas direct, with no changes, and it's worth the extra money. The air crew were much like any other, but they actually had smiles on their faces, like they really enjoyed being there! Whatever next? Managed to restrict myself to just a couple of beers and some red wine, which was manfully understated.

Phil met me at the airport, and we got into his 2004 Jaguar XJ8 (in white, not something you'll see in the the UK), and cruised around in iced luxury. We got back to his place, sucked a couple of bottles of Becks (European tastes never leave you! - Phil's a Brummie who's lived in Vegas for 8 years), then went down to his local, the Road Runner bar. I managed to last until about 10:30 pm before I fell asleep in the bar. In mitigation, because Vegas is 8 hours behind us, I had been awake for about 24 hours, so it was the equivalent of 6 in the morning.

Got back to Phil's and crashed on his living room floor; he couldn't wake me so he went straight to bed. I traipsed into my room some hours later, for some delicious sleep. Today we got up and ran some errands - went to some output warehouse, and bought 24 bottles of Becks for about 8 quid! Our country is so expensive. I saw a camcorder there for 170 pounds, normally 220 back home, so my eyes twinkled momentarily. Went to one of his friend's house, and performed cat duty (litter emptying .. eugh!), before cruising around some more. Tonight we're off to a drive-in movie (another first) so will keep you posted.

Film Review - The Cinderella Man

James J Braddock, the Bulldog from Brooklyn (played by Russell Crowe) is an American Irish boxer who has to retire from the ring, because of declining results and some serious injuries. When he hits hard times, and can no longer feed his family, his manager, played by the excellent Paul Giamatti, manages to get him a no-hope fight against a #2 contender for the world title. His comeback starts here.

The whole movie is set in Depression-era New York, where people are crammed into single-room slums, and the menfolk have to queue in the morning hoping to be picked for work at the docks, only to be paid a pittance for their efforts. The whole washed-out colour effect that Spielberg used in Saving Private Ryan is used here to add a grittines to the housing areas, the docks, and accentuate the sheer hopelessness of their lives. Day-to-day Braddock doesn't know where his next meal will come from, even having to work with a broken hand one day just to make ends meet.

His wife Mae (Renee Zellweger) is supportive without being disapproving, but shares the struggle as she tries to keep things together at home. Paul Giamatti, having no doubt leapt up casting lists everywhere since his fantastic success with Sideways, is excellent as the driven yet sympathetic manager who has to use all his wiles with promoters to get Jimmy back in the ring. This level of non-showy goodness pervades these three central characters: people struggling to get on with their lives with dignity, and quiet strength.

But it's in the ring that Braddock has his finest moments and no longer appears a victim. The film culminates in a big fight for Jimmy, one that is absolutely spellbinding. I found myself moving in my seat just watching the action in the ring, such is the excitement. In all but this section of the film, it has you gently attached to its core characters. You feel their pain without crying with them, and their fun makes you smile. But the final fight has you nearly screaming.

The formula has been done before; after all, this is merely an updated Rocky, but the fight scenes are shot realistically, using flashbulb sequences (as in Raging Bull) to add to the drama; the sense of understated courage shown by all the characters adds an emotional depth to the film. It doesn't allow itself to become a caricature, because it shows honest people fighting in all aspects of their life to stay afloat. The acid test for me is whether you care about the characters, and this stark portrayal of bum-came-good left me begging to see them all succeed. A fine movie, and worth watching, if not quite challenging Million Bollar Baby for the best boxing movie this year, 7.5/10

More Annoyance!

This maze game is in turns the most brilliant and most annoying game I've played. Reminiscent of those stupid games at the fairground where you've got to guide a ring of metal over a twisted wire without setting off the buzzer, this maze game will require precision mouse work.

I've just failed twice, but I know I will have to play on until I complete it .. arrgghhhh!

thanks to Kukla.

Evil Alarm Clock

Alarm clocks generally aren't going to make you a happy person, they can just remind you that you are somebody else's slave, and that you need to get up and serve them.

Actually my one's not too bad, it projects the time onto the ceiling in a soft red glow, which is pretty cool, and synchronises itself automatically with the Atomic clock, which again, is not too shabby.

Well, the one in the picture is a new kind of evil clock:

".. which actually hangs above your bed, and wakes you up in the morning by chiming. The only way to silence it is to reach up and gently tap it. The Sfera then slowly rises away from your reach, and causes you to stretch higher each time to gain another ten minutes of snooze time. Clever! When it reaches the ceiling, you have no option but to reach for it and drag it back down to your bed - an action which switches off the alarm and forces you to finally get up."

Thanks to Travelizmo.

End of a Music Landmark?

surely it cannot be: the place where Richard Hell, Television and the Ramones all rose to fame is now going to close. According to this New York Daily News article, after 32 years, the club will not get its lease renewed. The bar that launched punk rock will no longer be, although hordes of local residents and musical artists are protesting to keep the club alive.

The club's official web site defiantly states that the club will stay open without a lease, and even has plans for some Benefit Gigs to save the venue, featuring artists such as the Dandy Warhols, Helmet and a band called Dead Men Walking (featuring: Slim Jim Phantom of The Stray Cats, Mike Peters of The Alarm, Captain Sensible of The Damned, Kirk Brandon of Theatre of Hate/Spear of Destiny). How cool would that be? For the ultimate history (with cool pictures of the club), get the book here.

(Picture from CBGB site)

Chocolate and wine diet

This article from an Australian news site tells us what we've wanted to hear forever:

"Scientists in Australia and The Netherlands have come up with a diet they claim will cut a person's risk of heart disease by 78 per cent. And the good news is, you'll want to be on it.

The diet focuses on seven foods that have been proven to reduce cholesterol and blood pressure. It involves daily consumption of 150ml of red wine, which has been found to cut heart disease risk by 32 per cent. Chocaholics line up, because you have to consume 100g of dark chocolate per day, an amount the scientists calculate will reduce blood pressure."

Thanks to J-Walk.

Rollable reader display

One of the areas which Microsoft have invested over the last few years is reader technology. This makes it easier for people to view large documents (such as novels) on hand-held devices. Ultimately though, because the viewable area is so small, people have been unable to read large sentences comfortably, and this has meant it has never quite taken off.

Phillips have developed a new rollable display pocket e-reader, (as pictured, click here for larger picture), which starts small, but expands to expose a much larger screen area. In itself the device isn't that impressive, but if the technology gets adopted in the mobile computing arena, it could revolutionise portable displays, and reduce existing restrictions.

"Building on its leading position in rollable displays and drawing on its considerable heritage in personal electronics, Philips Polymer Vision is revealing its Concept Readius at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) in Berlin, Germany, September 2-7. Philips Concept Readius is a prototype of a connected consumer device for business professionals unwilling to sacrifice readability, mobility, performance, or weight in a pocket-sized, e-reader concept.

Polymer Vision does not intend to commercialize this concept as a product in the market. Instead, it is demonstrating the fitness of its rollable displays for use in the mobile devices of tomorrow."

Thanks to Kukla.